Goodbye To All That Read Online Free PDF Page A

father’s practice had established a 401K plan for their staff. His parents weren’t extravagant. They didn’t take world cruises. They didn’t drop thousands of dollars at the casinos. Unlike Brooke, Doug’s mother wasn’t a big fan of manicures and overpriced perfume.
    Where could their money have vanished to?
    If they were facing destitution, of course, Doug would be expected to kick in the most to help them out. He had the most to kick in. As an associate with a New York law firm, Melissa earned a generous income, and if she made partner that income would rise. But she lived in Manhattan, and whatever part of her salary didn’t get devoured by rent was spent on sprees at, as she called it, “Cousin Henri’s.” Brooke had had to explain to Doug what Henri Bendel was. Pricey store, no relation.
    “What time is this gathering?” he asked Jill, toying with a dish towel that hung over the knob on one of the drawers. Where had that come from? And why did it feel so soft? Like suede.
    “One-thirty,” Jill said.
    “Make it one o’clock. If we finish early, Dad and I can still get in eighteen holes.”
    “One-thirty, Doug. Don’t give me a hard time, okay? I don’t like this any more than you do, and I’m not even a golfer.”
    She might not like it, but at least she knew what was going on. Doug was the eldest. And not to get sexist about it, but he was the only son. It wasn’t fair that Jill knew things he didn’t know. “Jill,” he said in his sternest older-brother voice. “You have to tell me what this is about.”
    “I promised Mom.”
    “Mom put you in an untenable position. We’re sibs, right? United we stand. I covered for you when  . . . well, you never did anything wrong, so maybe I didn’t cover for you. But we both covered for Melissa a million times. And I got you through that stupid biology course you took in college.”
    “I shouldn’t have signed up for that class,” Jill admitted. “My advisor kept telling me I wasn’t well-rounded and I needed science in my schedule.”
    “If it hadn’t been for me, you wouldn’t have made the Dean’s List that semester. I was there for you, Jill. I had your back.”
    She fell silent. He imagined guilt and indebtedness simmering through the wires between them. “All right,” she said finally, reluctantly. “But you can’t tell anyone.”
    “Fine.”
    “Not even Brooke. I mean it, Doug. Mom made me promise—”
    “I won’t tell Brooke. What?”
    “They’re getting a divorce.”
    Doug scowled. “Who?”
    “Mom and Dad. Don’t tell anyone. They want to tell us all in person. Except that I made Mom tell me. And now I’ve told you.” Jill’s voice wavered, as if threatened by a sob.
    “All right, all right,” he said, too focused on calming her down to digest what she’d just told him. “It’s going to be all right. I won’t tell anyone.”
    “Not even Melissa.”
    “Especially not Melissa.” Why the hell not Melissa? he wondered, then answered his own question: because Melissa would freak out.
    Not like him. He had nerves of steel. He made microscopic incisions in people’s corneas several times a day. He could handle this.
    A divorce? A fucking divorce? His parents?
    “And you have to act surprised,” she added. “When Mom and Dad tell us, you have to act like you didn’t know.”
    “Right.” Jill’s news was beginning to sink in. Jesus Christ. A divorce. Mom and Dad. Ruth and Richard Bendel, who’d been together so long their names had merged. RuthandRichard.
    He heard his daughters’ voices chirping down the hall as they approached the kitchen. They were chattering about something, both speaking at once, as they frequently did. For some reason, they could talk and listen simultaneously, only with each other and usually in such a way that no one else could begin to absorb their words. Maybe they’d developed that talent in utero.
    “I’ve got to go,” he said, peering down the in the direction of the